It is estimated that within the past year 31% percent of college students, nearly 5 million, have met the criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse. Additionally, within the past 2 weeks over 40% of college students will have engaged in binge drinking. This high prevalence of abuse puts students at greater risk for academic problems, sexual abuse, risky sexual behaviors, physical injury, assault, violence, and death. This research proposal seeks to gain an understanding of the role of anxiety tolerance and Bowen's theory of differentiation. Specifically, this study aims to: Identify the relationship between anxiety tolerance and reported levels of anxiety, establish the relationship between anxiety tolerance and alcohol consumption, identify the relationship between anxiety tolerance and binge drinking, identify the moderating relationship between alcohol expectations and history of parental alcohol use with anxiety tolerance and alcohol. This project is innovative in that it incorporates the systemic concept of anxiety tolerance with one's family of origin to individual decision-making processes, which has not been previously applied to the understanding of alcohol consumption. If the hypothesized relationship between levels of anxiety tolerance and alcohol consumption exists, not only will it prove to be a unique contribution to the alcohol consumption literature, but will also yield a greater understanding of how to further pursue the decision-making processes of college students. [unreadable] [unreadable]